Milford Theater restoration advocate inspired by memories of its past

Every month for three years, Realtor Davis Chant called Connie Merwine, attorney for Joe Farruggio to ask if he was "getting closer to the time to make a decision" about selling the Milford Theater.

JESSICA COHEN

Every month for three years, Realtor Davis Chant called Connie Merwine, attorney for Joe Farruggio to ask if he was "getting closer to the time to make a decision" about selling the Milford Theater.

Chant is part of a community group that includes Tom Hoff, founder of Pike County Historical Trust; Mike Carson, initiator of the Winter Lights Festival; attorney Duke Schneider; and Deborah Bailey, owner of Connections Magazine and Bailey Design and Advertising. It envisions turning the theater over to a nonprofit group that would restore the building and its once lively schedule.

Asked if he was apprehensive when he made that monthly call, Chant said, "No. I'm the proverbial optimist. I assumed we'd get it together."

"Farruggio has little or no debt for the theater. He can afford to hold onto it," said Chant. "But he and his family have other theaters, and this one wasn't very productive for them. The community has been asking for a number of years for him to sell it to a non-profit."

In August, Chant told Farruggio he needed to act; with the economy tightening, grant funding would also shrink. Farruggio finally agreed to sell. Tom Hoff, representing the Pike County Historical Trust, put down $10 toward a $375,000 contract that expires in August of 2010. Chant and his cohorts now busily recruit community volunteers to form a board and run a theater trust.

Chant has a vision of what the theater could be, inspired by what it has been. In the late '40s, he celebrated his childhood birthdays by going to Ethel's Tea Room around the corner, then paid a quarter to see westerns and Alfred Hitchcock films at the theater, munching popcorn bought for a nickel.

During the summers, Chant rode his bike to the theater to watch summer stock rehearsals. Young actors came from New York to perform, and stayed at a dormitory near the Hotel Fauchére and a casino that at the time operated on Broad Street. Chant recalls theater owner Charlie Haubert in his three-piece suit, with his red-headed wife, always dressed with color and flare, greeting guests in the theater lobby.

But in the late '50s and '60s, said Chant, theater activity declined, while Milford became the "world capital" for science fiction writers, as their families moved up from New York to partake of the woodsy quiet, camaraderie, and less expensive lifestyle. Periodically, science fiction writers came from around the world for conferences. Chant recalls having coffee with a science fiction writer in a tea room on Broad Street and discussing lost spaceships, serendipitous foreshadowing of the plot of a movie — "Event Horizon" — in which Chant's actress daughter, Holley, later starred.

She was aided in her acting career by the wave of entertainment industry people moving to Milford who arrived next. Chant, who began selling real estate in 1958 and often advertised in New York City papers, noticed a change in his business in the mid-'60's when performing arts people increasingly came to Milford to buy second homes, not just the summer homes without central heating that had typified his business.

"They didn't come up to get involved," says Chant, "but they became involved."

"Now those actors, singers, costume and scenery people, and other arts supporters, are willing to commit time for personal reward," says Chant, some encouraged by theater trust organizer Mike Carson, a corporate event producer in New York.

The theater looks much like it did 60 years ago when, Chant recalls, the couple who owned the theater admitted him and his friends for standing room spots in the back to watch summer stock plays.

But on a recent Sunday, he pointed to a part of the lobby ceiling that had been ripped out for repairs. The building also fails to comply with requirements of Milford's Architectural Review Board, which recently brought an action against Farruggio. Chant negotiated a hold on the action, as preparations for a transition in theater ownership continue.

The Pike County Historical Trust will contribute $50,000 toward the theater purchase if the project receives enough grant money for repairs that will cost more than $1 million dollars, and a responsible board is formed to generate daily theater activities that would support the venture financially.

The theater's 300 old burgundy velveteen seats and silk wallpaper, acquired at a World's Fair decades ago, are rather worn, and may be replaced. But in the lobby, under the torn ceiling, relics suggest the possibility of amusement.

Posters from past events announce the Broadway Stock Company presenting Soap and Water, a "Hilarious Comedy," admission 55 cents; and movies such as "Mr. and Mrs. North," with Jimmy Durante and Gracie Allen; and Fibber McGee and Molly in "Look Who's Laughing," costing adults 35 cents, children 11 cents.